(Click here to watch Zongzi wrapping in China. Video by Shanghaidaily)

As the Dragon Boat Festival is just around the corner, people across China are preparing traditional food and decorations to celebrate it.

Besides the widely known Zongzi, or Chinese sticky rice dumplings, wearing sachets (perfumed medicine bags) is also a tradition that has existed for 2000 years.

A sachet. [Photo by Bai Kelin]

These small bags are extremely delicate and feature ingenious designs such as a goldfish, a little white bunny, a little tiger, a kitten, a bottle gourd with beautiful and extravagant patterns, and lively and sleek lines. With special herb powder inserts, the scented sachets are traditionally a way to protect kids from bug bites.

Sachet making is one of the intangible cultural heritages of Shanghai’s Yangpu district. Yu Dong, a second-generation inheritor of sachet making, introduced that sachet production includes ten techniques such as choosing ingredients and cloth materials, cutting out cloth, milling Chinese medicine, suturing and tasseling.

“The scent is not sprayed up, but a natural aroma from the powders inside which are composed of tens of Chinese medicines,”said Yu. While the traditional purpose of sachets was to ward off evil and dispel plague, but can in the modern world be used as a decoration on cellphones, handbags or in cars as well as a camphor pill bag in wardrobes.